• My favourite longreads (for your weekend-reading pleasure) Earlier in the week I shared how I longread. I flagged why it is such an important practice for our frazzled brains. Today, I give you my list of favourite sources for finding long things to read that enrich my mind, make my heart soar, enhance my understanding of the world, while also drawing me more
• What to leave out: The key to creativity I highly recommend long reading. Not least because of the lovely knowledge that unfurls from it. I also think that committing to a long read narrows, focuses, hones and gets you still. It’s the antidote to the frazzle of short-form toggling. It’s a Sunday afternoon thing for me, to read all the lengthy prose I’ve more
• Too much attention, not distraction, is the issue Blimey, we’re all very focused on the Distraction Problem, aren’t we. Our electronic devices ruin dinner, corrupt young minds. Our frenetic toggling is reshaping our brains in disconcerting ways. I don’t disagree with the concerns. An inability to sit soundly and in flow with ourselves and life (or a culture that drags us from this more
• Ditch the NavMan for a more meaningful life! It’s a simple idea, but one that intuitively gels: Navigating without technological aids like Google Maps or Navman works an important part of the brain associated with a sense of self. Finding where you are helps you find yourself, says a study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet. It goes like this: Exerting ourselves spatially, extending ourselves to more
• Don’t Buy My Books What do you think of this? It’s a message I’m trying on for size after seeing outdoor brand Patagonia give it a crack as part of their anti-consumerist campaign. Patagonia ran with the slogan “Don’t Buy This Jacket” a few years back as a series of print ads. The irony, of course, is that it translated as more
• How to heal auto immune disease: 20 weird thyroid symptoms (for your comfort) I’m not sure if you caught Meghan O’Rourke’s essay What’s Wrong With Me in a recent issue of New Yorker? It shines a spotlight on what it’s like to live with autoimmune disease. Totally pervy stuff for us AI folk. I read it. I read it again. And I wept. You know that kind of weeping more